Hotels want you to enjoy your stay so much that you’ll come back again. How do they plan to do that? By dazzling you during the first crucial 15 minutes of your stay, or at least avoid annoying you. Because if they lose you at check-in, that’ll immediately color your entire perception of your stay. And thanks to social media, a bad review can immediately reach hundreds, or maybe thousands, of people.

So, what’s the plan? A lot of hotels are renovating lobbies and driveways to make them easier to navigate, and more visitor-friendly. For example, the new Trump Hotel in Toronto has a small lobby with two reception desks. So, the staff can step out and introduce themselves with a handshake. Also, the doormen look at luggage tags, and radio the desk and bellman……So guests can be greeted by name.

Hotels are also training front-desk employees to remember what they learn during check-in, and use that information to impress. Say, if someone mentions they have a cold, the desk sends up a tray of complimentary hot tea.

Also, air travel is tougher, so guests show up already stressed out, making it even harder for hotels to make a good impression.

So, Doubletree Hotel hands out warm cookies the moment you walk up to the desk. One hotel even hired a body-language expert to train employees to read a traveler’s mood, so the staff can gauge the best way to greet them.

Hotels are also catering to kids. The Peninsula Chicago provides “kid-welcome” baskets of cookies, gummy bears, and child-size slippers. And if you tweet a compliment about their hotel, they give you a fancy box of chocolates with a note that says, “Thanks for the Tweet! Enjoy this treat!”